


Lord of Shadows

by Lkcsi



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 09:54:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13679328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lkcsi/pseuds/Lkcsi
Summary: As the bearer of the Void Heart, all of Little Ghost's siblings join in the fight against the Radiance. Finally, the collective Void can begin to feel at ease.





	Lord of Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> I had an idea a few days ago: What if, in the Radiance fight, the dead Vessels you see all around Hallownest join you?For example, Broken Vessel appearing as a shade and damaging Radiance, etc. It was a neat idea that somehow became a ficlet. Enjoy.

This was it. The culmination of their journeys throughout Hallownest was here, and there was only one shot for this. The little ghost felt a small sense of dizziness. It was unbelievable. From losing almost all memory while exploring the wastes beyond the Howling Cliffs, to exploring the kingdom which they were literally made to protect, to going all the way back to their birthplace and recovering their memory, and making allies (friends?) along the way… and now, in the world of dream.

The cause of the infection taking over hapless bugs was truly within reach and moments away from destruction. Or perhaps _they_ were the one just a single step away from death? Nevertheless they still stood their ground, hand firm on their nail’s handle.

Thoughts were overwhelming them; the blazing heat from far away rumbled and the spirits of their siblings stirred from within themself. The Heart of Void hummed.

_Good sibling. Beloved kin._

The Forgotten Light shone as much as She could, all her anger and insanity concentrated in Her power. She glared at the insolent, weak thing that breached through the Vessel that contained Her, dared challenge Her, bore the ancient talisman She granted only to Her people, and brought with it the entirety of the Emptiness. How could the shapeless, thoughtless, worthless Void even hope to defeat Her, the goddess of dream? She screeched and She lashed out, Her wings now unfurled. The crazed Old Light’s winged form burst out from a flash of orange and white. This Void, this pliant soft mindless Void, She cackled inwardly, will be nothing against searing blades of dreams and wishes.

Void against time-maddened light. Radiance against newly-united darkness.

The little ghost brought up a hand over their eyes. They could feel Her burning rage through their shell, and it could have been so painful if it weren’t for the Heart within them. She must have spoken, the floor under them trembling. Clutching their pure nail, they then moved to cut her. Such was the ferocity of their attacks. With every hit of their nail and every spell cast were frustration and determination. So she cried out, a pillar of light now moving towards the nimble but soft shadow. They dashed and sprinted around the small piece of land She conjured for them as a jest.

She seemed to be winning. Her radiant blades cut through the weak shadow’s mask and body. Their semi-liquid figure bled pitch black and She could not help but laugh as they struggled to find somewhere they could stop and focus. An unstoppable rain of crisscrossing nails denied them their time to pause, yet somehow, with those puny wings of theirs, they could slash at her. They sped through her attacks and spun around with great speed. She could feel the pure nail cause welts and cuts on Her shell. Her sight was then clouded by gray and black.

She put forth blinding light from within Herself, and She rejoiced as their feeble body leaked out the dark, soft matter of Her ancient enemy. The little ghost would scream out in pain if only they could. Their nail’s handle was still in reach. They pushed themselves up, not truly realizing their defiance against the Light. The inky black that spilled out of their body stained the ground, but they paid no attention to it. The Void Heart suddenly felt starkly cold in their body, and the knight could not help but look behind them. A dark agglomeration began to rise from the endless depths of the dream realm and the dark blood that spilled out of their body gathered together and so a floating ball of Void appeared, which then unrolled itself.

The Radiance screamed. The Forgotten Light could not move, She could not attack. This Shade floating beside Her enemy... frightened Her.

The little ghost watched as a sibling swiftly floated up beside them. Their gaze was… not so hollow? It was warm to their eyes. Those short horns curving over and backward… they saw them in Greenpath, where they fought their sister Hornet!

The Sibling must have heard them in their united mind. They raised a hand and wiggled it a little, as if waving, and then put a ghostly hand upon the horned head of their Lord and Beloved Kin.

_Nice, see, love, good sibling, today, first time._

The little knight felt a welcome, and if they had a mouth, they would smile, and if they had true tears, they would cry. Did the darkness that leaked out of their mask’s eyes qualify as tears? They had only done that once… when clutching the broken body of a bigger Vessel in the Ancient Basin. They had survived much longer than their other siblings, even bigger than the biggest one in Nosk’s lair, but when they passed, the Infection claimed the corpse, and their spirit could not find peace at all.

They could feel something wet trailing down from their eyes down their mask.

They watched as their sibling’s shade suddenly blitzed towards the Radiance, drawing a nail made of Void from within their head and pierced through Her face. This caught even Her unaware. How dare, how dare these shadows cut through _Light_ ! Her gaze went from the Shade assaulting Her to the frail little white and black _thing_.

How dare, how dare they all try to recover! To win over Her!

Great nails appeared from small bursts of light, all trying to hit the two shadows. One was too fast, their dashing almost like travelling without truly crossing a distance. The nuisance couldn’t be touched. The other, somewhat slower but with the substance of their birthplace draped over them, performed another cursed and corrupted spell, this time a small fragment of their own Shade’s silent reprisal. More and more nails rained upon them, but this time, sprigs of Void shot out from the rapidly-growing black mass. These Void tendrils grabbed at the blades of the nails and pulled them within the inky depths of their whole. Some of Her nails cut them in two and diced them apart, but they were like the hydra. There were endless tendrils, all batting Her weapons away from their Leading Kin or absorbing the nails of light into themselves.

She felt part of Her wings get clipped by a powerful slash made by the little ghost. In Her pain she winced and lashed out, hitting the Shade of their sibling. They watched in horror as their sibling disappeared into wisps that sank into the void, but the Heart within them hummed calmly.

_Fine, home, deep down, heal._

The abyss was their home, and to it their injured kin returned.

She was becoming so livid. The heat of Her hatred shaped Her weapons into a steady rain of nails. The blackness that infiltrated Her world still grew steadily and rapidly, all beings of Void uniting and coming into the Black Egg that held the Vessel that held Her. She wished, oh She wished, to take apart Her enemy. She would use her nails to cut through and slowly suffocate them all in her blaze. Light must annihilate dark. It was what it should be.

_Help, good sibling, bad light._

Another bunch of small balls appeared from the Void, unrolling together in unison. The little ghost barely noticed them until they suddenly appeared before the unwitting Radiance. Their cloaks tapered and were tied together, much like a spider’s web. At first the little knight failed to recognize them, but the webs they made reminded them of Deepnest. Their Void web ensnared Her and forced Her downward onto the piece of floating ground, and as quickly as they came they disappeared. Tendrils crept up to hold onto Her and pull her down, but She was resilient. She refused. She glanced into Her grave, and screeched. No, it would not be the end of Her, the Emptiness can be defeated!

She shrunk Herself into mere dream essence and fled upwards, Her deranged voice echoing all throughout the dream. The Void rose with their Leading Kin as they jumped upwards to follow Her. The soft flutter of their small wings and the sounds of their spells let the sightless Emptiness feel them. Their nail once again connected with Her shell while She fired beams of light all around. Pillars of light moved towards the little shadow, but they dashed through it, cloaked in protective shade. Homing orbs of Her essence appeared and chased the little ghost, exploding into a mess of white and orange. One was lucky enough to graze at the soft black shell of the knight. The resulting explosion threw the tiny ghost back and almost to the edge of the platform. They would have fallen off had they not planted their nail to the ground and held on to it, but even so they knew that the dark abyss would catch them and fling them back up.

_Stand, good sibling, stand, fight._

The knight looked up when they caught the movement of many large nails going towards them. Before they could jump back to their feet and dash, a web of void tendrils and their siblings’ cloaks appeared all of a sudden. The shield disappeared as soon as the nails touched them, and Her blades fell to the floor, now discolored into a deep blue.

Similar discolored nails shot out from the Void. A barrage of Void-corrupted radiant blades volleyed upwards, and due to Her large size She could not avoid many of them. Beams of scorching light rapidly fired, melting the cold Void nails back into nothing. She giggled to Herself as the swarm of black began to oscillate, and prepared her next set of Her retribution.

_Avoid, fight._

A beam of light pierced through the little knight’s left arm. Before the next beam could harm them, a phantom rose from the swarm and pushed them to safety.

_Again._

The little ghost paused, staring up at the Shade of a larger Vessel. Their horns, there were two large horns on one side and one tiny horn jutting out off the opposite side. Those were the same horns, they remembered, that they caressed before and after fighting their sibling’s cruel puppeteers. They remember cradling their broken body, as they saw a fleeting image nearby emanating soft light.

They felt something from within, tugging at their heart. Tears? Were there more tears on their mask?

_Good sibling, love, thank you._

The Radiance let out yet another shriek, Her next attacks chaining after each other frantically. The two siblings fought together. The Leading Kin cast a spell. Specters in pure agony dissipated into the air and into the crazed Light’s form. The feathers of Her body became caked with Void, which immediately started seeping into the cuts and cracks in Her shell. The once-broken vessel cut through the heat, their pure-black body skirting around the rays of bright orange. Their nail appeared from the emptiness within them and they landed a deep slash on the Old Light’s right wing.

Pain and desperation was all the Radiance felt. She flapped Her injured wing. She looked down, and there She saw Her grave rising up to meet Her. With a wail She flew further up in the infinite expanse of dream. She thought that as long as the world they were all trapped in was big enough, She could kill the Emptiness, but the heaviness of Her own body and the strain in continuing to attack... She could not stop, because if She did, it would be the end. Part of Her mind resigned itself to suffocation, but She still held out.

The bigger sibling patted the little knight’s horns with a tendril, and looked up.

_Good sibling, up, kill, bad light, siblings, support._

Those words rang in their mind. The Void rumbled. Tendrils with sharp thorns poked out from the black sea. Small spheres of darkness rose upwards; every Vessel deemed as failures appeared by the dozens. The once-broken child joined their siblings. The children of shadows followed their last living kin up, up, up into the endless sky. Their white wings and black cloak led them as they chased the escaping Radiance. With Her wings clipped and cut, She was slower than the small knight quickly ascending. She could do nothing but fire misaimed light downwards.

She did not notice the little ghost jumping up to Her and landing one final blow. The Emptiness came with them; spiny sprigs reached out and wrapped around Her and the shades of those whose birth intended Her death held on to her. Webbing trapped Her wings. Nails were thrust mercilessly into Her shell. Pitch black was everywhere and She could not see clearly except for stark white hollow eyes. She began to summon Her power, but it was interrupted by a Shade of someone familiar appearing suddenly and tearing apart Her face.

The Hollow Knight, the one deemed pure, held Her weakness and opened it up to all.

_Good sibling, little one, strong one, beloved one, wake up._

The little ghost’s mask and shell cracked. Their true dark form burst out of the mortal body holding them. That voice, those thoughts, those complete thoughts, they were of someone they never heard so calm before, only in calls for help and screams of pain. The Hollow Knight loked at them, and then glanced back into the terrified Old Light.

_Fulfill the mission, our mission. Let us all go home._

The little knight hit Her. Again and again, until She was weakened, until She no longer struggled against the hold of Her captors. The Void eventually consumed Her. Under darkness, the children ripped the wings, the crown, the face, the shell, even the blood and light, out. Her dying wails were muffled by the Emptiness, and in no time, She was obliterated. Her existence was ended there and then.

Within the satisfied Void, the Shade of the little ghost drifted, eyes open and staring out.

_Done?_

More eyes opened. They were all white gazes.

_Good sibling, miss, support, light, dead, home, nice._

_Home?_ The Leading Kin felt welcome coldness as small arms wrapped around their individual body.

_Yes, good sibling, home, all Vessels, Abyss, sleep._

_Sleep?_

_Rest, no death, good sibling, eternity, sleep, mission._

_Mission, done?_

A pair of sharp eyes, so different from the rest, opened. There was a small crack between those eyes. Their grown sibling drifted closer, and a hand patted the head of the little knight.

_It is done, all of us, go home and sleep._

_Done…_

_Yes, good sibling…_

_Tired. Sleep._

The collective Void seeped out of the Temple, its mission a success. It could finally be calm after so much time of unrest.

* * *

 

_Hornet awoke. When the Dream Nail struck the Hollow Knight, the entire Temple was covered in shadows. Enveloped in such jarring substance she fell unconscious._

_She looked around. Her needle was planted nearby. The last shreds of darkness left the spider’s thread on it. When she turned her head, the broken mask of the strongest Vessel she had ever witnessed wander the breadth of Hallownest greeted her. The Hollow Knight’s mask also laid nearby, also shattered in half._

_She stood up and approached the remains of her cursed siblings._

_It would be a good idea to give them a proper burial in the Resting Grounds and have a memorial of the little ghost alongside the Hollow Knight, she thought to herself as she bowed to their remains._


End file.
